Sandler Partners Adds Former Ernest VP to Executive Team

Written by Khali
November 3, 2011

Jeff Leshin joined the master agency as vice president of business development in mid-October from Ernest Communications, where he ran the channel for the past two years.

Master agency Sandler Partners, Manhattan Beach, Calif., announced Thursday the addition of Jeff Leshin as vice president of business development.

Jeff Leshin Leshin joined Sandler Partners in mid-October from Ernest Communications, where he was vice president of sales and marketing responsible for managing channel sales for the service provider. In his new role, he will be responsible for generating new business and recruiting new agents to the Sandler Partners team. He is based in Atlanta.

Leshin, a 24-year telecom veteran, is not new to the agency world. After starting his career at Cincinnati Bell Information Systems and Cable &Wireless, he owned his own master agency, Clearpath, in the early 2000s. He then spent three years as vice president of sales at Acceris where he built a new agent program after the company had completed several mergers. In 2006, he went back to the channel as vice president of sales for master agency Communications Management Systems. Following that, he spent one year as a general manager in Atlanta for XO Communications and the last two years at Ernest. Leshin has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Arizona, and he was a member of the 2010-11 Channel Partners Advisory Board.

Leshin told Channel Partners his decision to rejoin the channel was due in part to the greater flexibility it affords as well as the opportunity help drive growth for Sandler Partners, which is a repeat Inc. 5000 honoree, recording revenue growth of 236 percent in the last three years.

I have known Jeff for several years,” said Alan Sandler, managing partner of Sandler Partners, in a press statement. He has a solid industry reputation and great industry perspective, having been an agent, a master agent and also the head of channel sales in his extensive career. As a specialist in high-growth channel development, Jeff is a natural fit for Sandler Partners, and we value his efforts nationally as well as his presence on the East Coast.”